The Mistake: Treating Pickup Windows Like Service Appointments
Most dealerships treat their pickup window for online buyers like it's an afterthought. You post a time on the website, send a confirmation email, and figure th...
The Compliance Pitfalls Hiding in Your Complaint Process
Back in 2005, the Federal Trade Commission started cracking down on dealerships that didn't handle customer complaints properly. What started as a few enforceme...
The Weight Class Documentation Trap That's Costing Dealers Legal Headaches
The Weight Class Documentation Trap That's Costing Dealers Legal Headaches How many commercial vehicles have rolled off your lot in the last month without prop...
7 Compliance Mistakes Dealers Make With State Emissions Programs—And How They Expose Your Dealer License
How State Emissions Programs Became a Hidden Compliance Liability for Your Dealership In the 1970s, California passed the Clean Air Act Section 209 waiver, whi...
Six I-9 Compliance Mistakes Costing Dealerships Legal Risk and Fines
Sixty percent of employers fail their first Form I-9 audit by the Department of Homeland Security. Not sixty percent of businesses in your industry. Sixty perce...
6 Common AML Reporting Mistakes That Put Your Dealer License at Risk
Most dealers think AML reporting is just a compliance checkbox, and that's exactly why they're getting it wrong. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) reporting threshold...
5 Costly Mistakes Dealers Make With Lost-Customer Recovery Scripts
How many customers have you lost to a competitor this month that you didn't even know were gone until they'd already switched? That's the brutal reality most d...
7 Costly Mistakes Dealerships Make With Customer Service Portals
The $50K Problem Most Dealerships Don't Know They Have Back in 1990, when a customer needed their service history, they had two options: call the dealership an...
Mobile App Engagement Metrics: Avoiding the Traps That Cost Dealers Customer Retention
Sixty-three percent of dealerships say they're tracking mobile app engagement, yet barely a quarter of them can tell you what those numbers actually mean. And t...
The Welcome Call After the Sale: 7 Mistakes That Kill CSI and Loyalty
How many customers who just bought from you are going to hear from your dealership again in the next 48 hours? If you're not sure of the answer, you're probabl...
The Referral Bonus Trap: Why Most Dealer Programs Fail at Scale
Picture this: it's Monday morning at the dealership, and your top sales guy walks in to tell you he's got a cousin who's hungry to move cars. You shake his hand...
7 Succession Planning Mistakes Family Dealerships Make (and How to Avoid Them)
How many dealer principals have a genuine succession plan on paper, versus how many think they do because they've mentioned it to their oldest kid at Thanksgivi...